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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1997)
• « >» » « « * * I4»i> i A ug . 6, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver P age A 2 Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views Of (Tlje Jin rt lattò © hseruer SUBSCRIBE TO (The ^ ¡J o rtla n b ( P b s e r u e r The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00 per year Please fill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to: D / e r s p e c / r e s SUBSCRIPTIONS Tin-: P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 Name: _______________________ A ddress sending a such a program to a re mote location. I may have a compact disk or NET address king before then, but in any case I am appending some useful citations at the end of this article. In the interim it is essential that very early on certain basic concepts must be thoroughly understood if one is not to be found ‘disposable’ atevery merger, layoff or belt tight ening. In the same mode as my demon stration for the mathematics class of Mr. Grace, I emphasize the study C ity, State Zip-C ode:_________________ _______________________ - —— T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver Attention Readers! Please takeaminute to send usyour comments. We’re always trying to give you a better paper and we can’t do it without your help. Tell us what you like and what needs improvement., any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful pens out NOW and address your letters to: Editor. Reader Response . P,O, Bax 3 1 37, Port l and. OR 97208, ^ .lo r t la n b (© b se r u e r (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher & Editor Mark W ashington D istsribution M anager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Yvonne Lerch A ccount Executive Mike Leighton Copy Editor o f “ p erm u tation s” and “C om b i n ation s” ; the basic logic o f “ how m any ways m ay things (devices) be con n ected or arranged or d is tributed? - one at a tim e, or ‘not at a tim e?” Understanding these formulas and paradigms is crucial to design ing or relating to systems - people or machines (like computers). In fact, comprehension of the several number systems and their bases (radix) require this. But only if you wish to move your expertise beyond that of sitting before a com Contributing Writers: Professor McKinley Burt. Lee Perlman, Neil Heilpern 4747 N E M artin L uther K ing, Jr. Blvd., P ortland, O regon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Em ail: P d xob serv@ aol.com A d s: M o n d a y, 1 2 :0 0 p m PO STM A STE R : Send A ddress C han ges To: Portland O b server, P.O. Box 3137, P ortlan d, OR 97208. Periodicals postage paid at Portland. Oregon. Subscriptions: $30.00 per year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. M anu scripts and photographs should he clearly labeled and will be relumed if accompanied by a sell addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent ot the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition ot such ad © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART W ITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED The Portland O bserver-O regon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica- tion—is a member of the National Newspaper A ssociation-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. B y H ugh B. P rice P resident N ational U rban L eague « he news across much ot the nation’s economic front has been splendid recently. The stock m arket is soaring. In fla tio n is low. A s is the overall un em ploym ent rate. A n d m ost o f the nation ’s cities are on solid fisca l footing, a rem arkable turnaround fro m a decade ago. I and other critics of the new law have al wavs said that those receiving welfare assistance must themselves make a meaningful elfort-by work- T ing for the government, a private- company or nonprofit group, or tak ing jo b -tra in in g or educational courses-to get off the welfare rolls. But should those in workfare pro grams have to work for less than the minimum wage or the area's prevail ing wage for the work they do? Should they not have the job-re lated health and safety protections other A m erican w orkers enjoy? Should they not be eligible for over time, promotion, the earned income tax credit, unemployment insurance, Social Security? Because workfare recipients can be paid below the minimum wage, should cities and state and private companies be allowed to use those in workfare programs to displace low- wage workers who w eren't on wel fare? And just this week President Clinton, speaking at the National G overnors' Association, declared that w elfare recip ien ts in state New Budget Deal Is Reagan Tax Rerun eorge Santayana once wrote ihai“those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it. ” Un fortunately, they try to make the rest o f us relive it, too. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan and his “supply-side ” tax cut allies conducted a major pub lic policy experiment. They claimed that they could lower taxes (especially on the rich), while simultaneously rais ing more revenues. Rational people knew that was a ludicrous proposition, but the right had the political power at the time, so this experiment in greed went on. It was a total Hop. The rich and pow erful received m ajor tax breaks; the average American took G B y B ernice P owell J ackson ur grandmothers' old saying O that when w hile fo lk s get a cold, black fo lk s get p n e u m onia took on new meaning with the release of a new Centers for Dis ease Control and Prevention (CDC) report on HIV/AIDS. The report showed that we have entered anew era in the treatment and prevention of this disease, with the number of deaths dropping a dra matic 19% last year. But while deaths among whites decreased 28%, they dropped only 10% fo r blacks and 16% fo r Hispan ics. Thus, much o f the progress seen in the treatment o f AIDS has been experienced by white men. home a few extra dollars a month; and the poorest Americans found themselves worse off, especially af ter service cuts were factored in. The most irresponsible part of the whole experiment was the tripling of our public debt, a burden on our children and grandchildren which remains the real Reagan legacy. A critical mass o f GOP legisla tors believes they were sent to Capi tol Hill to make life easier for the rich, and tougher for the poor. and declining deficits stemming from the 1993 tax increase that president Clinton and the Democrats forced on the wealthy, the conservatives are offering up relief from estate taxes, a decrease in the capital gains tax, and achild tax credit tilted away from the working poor. What would be the effect o f their new tax loopholes? According to R obert M c In ty re and M ichael E ttlingerof the Citizens I’orT ax Jus tice, in a recent Washington Post So, th ey’re back. The GOP tax cut o f 1997 would once analysis, “m o re th a n h a l f th e ta x cu ts again benefit the rich, hurt in b o th th e H o u se a n d S e n a te the poor, and increase public defi p la n s are ta rg e te d to w a rd the b e s t- o ff ta x p a y e rs, th e 5 % o f cits after 2002. A m e r ic a n s w h o m a k e m o re th a n t a time of increasing wealth polarization, stagnant wages $ 1 1 3 ,0 0 0 a y e a r .” forageneration of working families, McIntyre & Ettlinger continue: A Indeed, it is w om en, w ho a c count for 20% o f the A ID S p o p u lation. and who are seeing fewer benefits from the progress made against this dreaded disease. eaths of women decreased by just 7%. while deaths ot men dropped 22%. D M ost infected w om en are women of color and most are poor and uneducated. Once again, black women arc in the category of the “least of these." Women with HIV/AIDS. it seems, are less likely to be properly diag nosed. The HIV Law Project in M anhat tan had to bring suit in 1993 in order to get the CDC to expand its official list of AIDS-related illnesses to in what this medium really is all about and, even more importantly, where it is headed - and what demands should he placed on yourchild and/ or his teachers. I recall that in 1969 a Lake Os wego resident saw an Oregonian article describing my approach to leaching computer logic to small children. Very quickly I was called by the Montessori School there to come out and demonstrate. I was engaged to design small “program boards” whereby 5 to 7 year olds could envision logic gates, decision trees, binary choices and the like: built around easily com prehensible routines like getting up in the morning, dressing, catching the school bus. My most immediate suggestion is that even before getting one of the large, detailed books on computers or programming ( or if you already have one), get the "Dictionary of Computer Words: An A to Z Guide to Today’s Com puters’, Revised Edition. Houghton M illiin Co., (1995 or later). This book is excel lently designed, easily readable and has good illustrations. To Be Equal Storm Warnings on Welfare Reform D e a d lin e f o r a ll s u b m itte d m a te ria ls: A r tic le s:F rid a y , 5 : 0 0 p m puter screen getting carpel tunnel syndrome from days of repetitive data entry orchestrated by some eas ily learned (too easily) rules. Or by programmed reaction to certain vi sual ‘icons’ toward which you can point your mouse. As I made these points before the youthful “Saturday Academ y” class Mr. Grice would always have me reinforce the lesson - say, when I made the connection to the ham- burgerchain’s highly-publicized sub stitution o f ’ icons’ like the picture ot a pop or Big M ac’ for numbers on the cash register keys. The point was made that there was not too much difference between that and the routine that management has implemented for tens of thousands of public sector employees, or at many banks, insurance companies and fi nancial services. By the carloads, the media depicts them leaving $ 15 an hour jobs for $6 ones. This is not to say, of course, that learning how computers work or that becoming facile with their use and applications is a waste of time. To the contrary, its time to get down to basics and to understand “This s h o u ld n 't su rp rise a n y body. A fte r all, the co n g ressio n a l tax b ills p ro p o se red u cin g the c a p ita l g a in s tax by as m uch as h a lf (from an e ffe c tiv e rate o f 28% to as little as 14% u n d e r the H ouse bill), low ering in h erita n ce ta x e s on the la rg e st 1.5% o f e s ta te s, exem p tin g a big ch unk o f in v e stm e n t incom e o u trig h t an d p ro v id in g a v a rie ty o f new c o r p o ra te tax loopholes. “A l l th e s e ite m s d isp ro p o r tio n a te ly b e n e fit th e w e a lth y , w h ile th e b ills ’ o th e r p ro v isio n s h a v e b e e n d e s ig n e d to g iv e n o th in g a t a ll to 4 0 % o f th e ta x p a y ers, th o s e w ith th e lo w e st i n c o m e s. E v e n th e h ig h ly to u te d $ 5 0 0 c h ild c re d it h a s b e e n s tr u c tu r e d so th a t a lm o s t h a l f o f a ll’c h il d ren , m o stly in low - a n d m o d e r a te -in c o m e fa m ilie s , w ill be in elig ib le. ” McIntyre & Ettlinger have con structed a table, which breaks down how the GOP tax breaks would go to different Income groups in America. The top 1% of all A m ericans, what Jesus m ight call "the m ost of these” - certainly the m ost pow er ful - w ould take home 33.8% of the tax breaks under the Senate GOP plan, and 38.0% under the House G OP plan. The next 4% wealthiest Ameri cans would take home 18.9% and 18.2%, respectively. The next 15% of the rich would take home another 31.3% under the Senate GOP plan, and another 26.6% under the House GOP plan. Sisters and ÄIDS clude ailments that are particular to women and even now many doctors fall to recognize these conditions as signs of HIV infection. In addition, women have only been allowed to participate in AIDS clinical trials for four years and only account for 16% of the patients in such studies. But even when properly diag nosed, women are less likely to be placed on the new antiviral therapy which is largely responsible for the dramatic decrease in AIDS-related deaths. “Women, especially women o f color, don't have the time or money or the energy to be sutfing the Internet to know what is the new and im proved latest treatment. " said Dr. Janet Mitchell in a recent New York Times story, adding, “ They tend over whelmingly to be mothers. They don't have that leisure to make AID S the only focus in their life, ” The result is that AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African American women ages 25-44 Black women are almost 15 times more likely to test positive for HIV than are white women. Nationwide, AIDS cases are now increasing m ost rapidly am ong women, particularly women of color. With at least 40,000 new infections of HIV/AIDS occurring nationally each year. HIV/AIDS will threaten the black family’s very survival in the 21st century. Doctors are warning that as trou bling as these statistics arc. the gen- dcr/race gap will only increase over the next few years as the full impact workfare programs should be paid the equivalent of the minimum wage. He also said that state officials should use the savings they gain from moving people off welfare for programs for the remaining welfare recipients, and not divert that money to other uses. First, there is no indication yet that current workfare programs can quickly move a sizeable number of welfare recipients into jobs that pay a liveable wage T hat m eans th at, w ith re la tiv e ly few e x c e p tio n s , w orkfare is likely to ju s t add to the ranks o f the w orking p o o r - t h o s e w ho w o rk , but whose w ages barely surpass the federal p o v erty -lin e stan d ard s. T hat was one fin d in g o f a recent study by the C e n te r on B udget and P olicy P rio ritie s, a W a sh in g to n -b a se d th in k tank. It said that b ecau se “p ro je c te d em p lo y m en t tre n d s show that jo b grow th in the near future will be c o n c e n tra te d in low - paying in d u strie s,” m o st w e l fare fam ilies w ill find it m ore d iffic u lt to find w ork that can support a fam ily. This is not a p re sc rip tio n for successf ully m oving people off w elfare. In stead , i t ’s part o f the accu m u latin g evid en ce that a storm o f huge d im e n sio n s is gathering force out in the co u n try behind all the good e c o nom ic new s. J of the new drugs takes af fect in the white male community. We must come to grips with the presence of HIV/AIDS in communities of color. We must demand that our com m u nities receive medical and preven tive services. We must offer treatment and sup port to women of color who arc living and dying with this disease. We must open our hearts and our doors to our children who are or phaned by this disease. Our sisters with HIV/AIDS cannot shoulder this burden alone. Nor should they.
